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sarahs@parkrapidsenterprise.com

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Richard Miller remembers the terrifying day his wife walked out the door, leaving him with his 8-week-old twin daughters to care for. "I've never been so scared in all my life," he said. "I wanted to grab onto her leg and say don't go." Fatherhood came late in life for Richard. He was 47 when he saw a blue-eyed beauty on a Bemidji dance floor and married her in 1996. Five reluctant years later their twins, Emma and Anna, were born. "You don't have to tell them how old I was," Richard said. Okay. We'll let you readers do the math.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has revised the number of tornados that hit Hubbard County last week to three. Previously NWS meteorologists theorized that four twisters struck the area June 6. On June 10, a new report, along with the storm path and times of touch-down, was released. "Times are based on some of the play-by-play reporting we got through the sheriff's office and through interviews with various affected persons," said Gregory Gust, warning coordination meteorologist for NWS.

When four powerful tornados ripped through the region Friday morning, Hubbard County wasn't in a tornado watch. "It came at a time in the day that's just not very common for tornados," said Gregory Gust, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service (NWS) in Grand Forks. NWS had said that the two tornados that struck the Menahga area were EF 2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, meaning the tornados were packing winds between 111 mph and 135 mph.

Hubbard County is operating under a state of emergency. - and a collective state of relief. "A couple hours later and this could have been a different scenario," said Hubbard County board chair Cal Johannsen, noting the Friday afternoon influx of tourists and seasonal residents.

Buyer beware. That's the advice a Park Rapids homebuilder offers to prospective purchasers of lake property. Why? Because Hubbard County commissioners are seeing a myriad of willful shoreland ordinance violations - and the builder is seeing even more dotting the landscape. Exasperated commissioners at Wednesday's board meeting briefly discussed revising the shoreline ordinances to penalize contractors who build without making sure homeowners have their permits in place at the time of construction.

The first 911 call came in shortly after 9:30 a.m. on a dark Friday - tornado on the ground. Hubbard County investigator Jerry Tatro hopped into his squad car and set out for Menagha, storm chasing. "We went out checking the sky in that area to see where the heaviest formation of clouds were and started following that," he said. "Southeast of Park Rapids we ran into the first tornado." They quickly did an about-face, chasing the funnel cloud through town, then heading north. "From that point we followed the tornado north on County Road 4," Tatro said.

As garage sales go, this one was a doozy. David Bessler ought to know. He goes to nearly 1,000 each week prowling for bargains - inventory he resells at The Peddler near Kabekona Corner. Bessler went to a sale near Laporte May 29 and bought some books. This particular book, "American Indian," has a good resale value, usually 2,000 percent. But this particular copy had something else in between the pages - some marijuana leaves drying. Bessler discovered the stash after he returned to his shop. "I'm a former cop and I'm the weed inspector in my township," Bessler said.

Doglessness can be a truly diminished existence. That's the opinion of a book critic who reviewed "The Nature of Dogs," a book of portraits of 60 different purebred varieties. Photographer/author Mary Ludington and her partner of 15 years, Kevin Kling, will be at Beagle Books in Park Rapids at noon Saturday June 7 to discuss their books and to sign copies.

As garage sales go, this one was a doozy. David Bessler ought to know. He goes to nearly 1,000 each week prowling for bargains - inventory he resells at The Peddler near Kabekona Corner. Bessler went to a sale near Laporte May 29 and bought some books. This particular book, "American Indian," has a good resale value, usually 2,000 percent. But this particular copy had something else in between the pages - some marijuana leaves drying. Bessler discovered the stash after he returned to his shop. "I'm a former cop and I'm the weed inspector in my township," Bessler said.

When it rains in Florence, umbrella vendors appear as quickly as mushrooms. That's one travel nugget documented in a journal kept by Erich Knapp, director of the Park Rapids Classic Chorale. Thirty-two members of the chorale and their guests recently returned from a 10-day performance tour of Italy's premier houses of worship. Knapp's journal is a richly detailed travel guide about the people, places, open air markets, wineries, basilicas, monasteries and a 1,000-year-old church the choir visited.